Hmmm

[james_davis_nicoll]

Is that the sound of despair from Mr Card?

Comments

[rosefox]

Well, the kind of disaster we're in now, I think.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty much the definition of an economic depression. Massive deflation, crowds of desperate unemployed to serve you, and things are actually great for anyone sitting on a huge pile of money, which becomes extremely valuable.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I wonder if fears of hyperinflation are common in those circles. Some generic stereotypical redneck might ride out this economic disaster still in possession of his truck, farm, shotgun, and dog; owning a bank account full of numbers and many stock certificates from failed companies would not be so satisfying.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Also, there are the individual disasters of getting old, acquiring a serious medical problem, having kids to put through college with exploding tuition, etc. From a pure Prisoner's Dilemma perspective, it may be that the only way to manage it is to become loaded.

But it's not actually difficult-but-possible to have a gigantic income unless you have some good luck to begin with. For most people, it's completely impossible.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Those aren't disasters in the hoarding-bags-of-beans sense at all, though. I was thinking of social breakdowns, plagues, nuclear explosions, failure of the banking system, that kind of thing. And I have to say, I know many, many people who are rich enough to afford college and retirement and such with relative ease, and none of them is remotely near the million-a-year mark.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I'm not happy about the current state of the US (nor of lots of other countries), but I wouldn't say it's disaster time for 98.8 percent of people, either. Not yet.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

How are you defining disastrous? It's easy to say things are not too bad if your standard is, say, an African warlord rampage zone.

(Hm. Perhaps that came off a little harsh. What I mean to say is that it came off to me a little dismissive of the bottom 20% which are barely hanging on by their fingernails.)

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I only meant to sound dismissive toward Rose's Mr. Millions, not anyone else. It just seems to me there's a difference between a depression and a prepper-scenario disaster, as I said in a comment above.